2015-08-02T20:26:16ZThe influence of parental education and literacy skill levels on children's achievement in primary school, Moyo district, rural Ugandahttp://hdl.handle.net/2262/74406
The influence of parental education and literacy skill levels on children's achievement in primary school, Moyo district, rural Uganda
DRAJEA, ALICE JURUGO
This thesis explores how the different levels of parents education and literacy skills influence
their primary six children s academic attainment. The interest in this area was derived from
endemic poor literacy abilities among universal primary school children in rural Uganda
leading to persistent poor school achievement.
The study reviews pertinent literature related to parental education and literacy skill practices
in the home setting. The focus is on the nature and quality of support parents provide, the
amount of available literacy related resources in the home environment because of parental
education or lack of it and the challenges they face. These areas underscore the three research
questions guiding the study. Related studies indicate that if parents have well developed
literacy skills and practices, and adequate literacy resources at home and in the community,
they will positively influence their children s education. However, when they lack such
symbolic social capital, they face challenges that are likely to impact negatively on their
children s educational achievement. This phenomenon is explored in this study in a
development world context, notably the Moyo district in Northern Uganda.
Mixed-methods with an ethnographic element is used to gather data from 119 participants
across three geographical sites through the methods of questionnaires, semi-structured
interviews, document analysis and participant observation involving three primary schools,
and nine families of different educational and economic backgrounds. Vygotsky s sociocultural
historical theory and the concept of cultural capital in terms of intergenerational
transmission of educational success underpins the basis for the inquiry.
Data are thematically analysed using a cross-case analysis. The findings indicate that all
parents researched, regardless of the different levels of their education, desire that their
children succeed in education but they face serious economic and other problems in supporting
them to do so. The educated parents are aware of the problems and the advantages of
education, but the reality of their lives and the financial challenges they face restrict them in
prioritising time for educational activities with their children. Their support remained at the
level of paying school fees for their children, and barely providing other school requirements.
The semi-literate and uneducated were aware of the broader benefits of education, but were
not yet fully aware of the level of interaction that is required to support and encourage their
children for school success.; This is compounded by the harsh financial realities in the everyday lives of these families. Their low and irregular income tend to control and hinder
them from extending adequate support to their children’s schooling. There was evidence of an
overly heavy burden of responsibilities on parents that are work related. Salaried parents
worked away from home and so did the semi-literate and illiterate (mostly doing casual jobs
and cultivation). Whereas a lack of time negatively impacted upon all parents’ ability to
support their children’s education. illiteracy hindered the academic involvement of less
educated parents. Overall, the children involved in this study were deprived on many fronts:
limited parent-child interaction, lack of home study and own space, play and educational
opportunities. The study concluded that parental education and literacy skills exclusively are
unlikely to enhance children’s achievement. Instead, parental knowledge of school matters and
practical engagement with additional external support could make a difference in children’s
achievement in school. The study makes recommendations for policy and practice in
educational, economic and political spheres. It will also serve as resource material for future
research.
APPROVED
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZParticipatory Practices in Open Source Educational Software - The Case of the Moodle Bug Tracker Communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/2262/71751
Participatory Practices in Open Source Educational Software - The Case of the Moodle Bug Tracker Community
Costello, Eamon
The Moodle bug tracker is a boundary object that faces software developers who write and maintain Moodle’s code whilst simultaneously exposing an interface to a much wider public world of ordinary Moodle users. Bugs can be fixed and new features requested by recording them in this boundary object which then tracks their progress. Such tracking has proven a powerful lure for researchers and despite much study of the phenomenon of open source bug fixing and software building, much remains to be answered. Specifically this research sought to analyse the implications of this massively distributed collaborative development process for education and educational technology (which to give it due importance, is referred to here as educational infrastructure). It examined the ways educators - who are defined inclusively as all those involved in supporting the educational enterprise - interface and contribute to the development of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Moodle at this granular level of bug fixing. Two things happen in a successful bug resolution: it is reported and then it is fixed. Only one population is skilled and empowered to engage in the latter but, in theory, anyone can be a reporter. Here data was collected and analysed about these two types of participant. Firstly archival and statistical analysis of thousands of issues contained in the tracker database itself was undertaken. These canonical accounts of bug-fixing contributed to the design and conduct of interviews of both core participants of this community and more casual or peripheral members. A broad spectrum of community participants were interviewed from fringe and casual members to some of the key actors including Tim Hunt of the Open University, Moodle HQ members Helen Foster and Michael du Raadt and Moodle founder Martin Dougiamas. Ethnographically inspired methods were utilised in the interview analysis to uncover rich stories of actual practice that were absent from the accounts of the database itself. This lead to several contributions to research being made by this thesis: a depiction of the dynamics and characteristics of an open source software community of practice dedicated to the enterprise of education; an enumeration of three complexes of factors leading to bug tracker issue resolution elicited from participants themselves; an account of particular unknown or under-reported non-canonical issue resolution factors; a model of the role of bug tracker issue mediators including the novel brokerage act of proxy issue submission and improvement; and a theory of how bug trackers are resistant to predictive models of issue resolution. These findings have implications for educational institutions reliant on VLEs and for developers of open source educational software
Authentic Listening to Student Voice: The Transformative Potential to Empower Students with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Mainstream Educationhttp://hdl.handle.net/2262/67953
Authentic Listening to Student Voice: The Transformative Potential to Empower Students with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Mainstream Education
FLYNN, PAULA
This student voice study engages with the perspectives of twenty student participants in mainstream education on their experience of school. All of the participants were identified as at risk of educational exclusion or with internalising or externalising behaviours associated with the classification of `social, emotional and behavioural difficulties? (SEBD). It was integral to this research undertaking to determine if `being listened to? would empower the participants to transform their experience of school.
The methodology is an example of qualitative research using a combination of ethnographic and narrative approaches. Data was collected primarily through one to one interviews and focus group meetings with the student participants, and supported by insights recorded in a reflective journal and contributions from school personnel. The data is presented within case studies and analysed thematically with collaborative contributions of significant themes from the participants. The major themes that emerged from the data were: `Voice?, `Perspectives of Difference?, `Care? and `Leadership?.
The findings of this research demonstrated that having the opportunity to be heard was significant to all of the participants. However, for some of the young people who were `silenced? on important issues in other parts of their lives, the experience of this `voice? process had less impact. For many of the participants, the opportunity to talk and encounter an `authentic response? influenced their levels of enthusiasm for and participation in the research process. This study confirmed the potential relationship between `voice?, `empowerment? and `transformation? because most of the participants actively contributed to improving relationships with their teachers and peers, while promoting and participating in strategies and activities that impacted positively on their experience of school.
Students with labels that exemplify `difficult difference? were responsible for positively affecting changes in attitudes towards them and presenting a model for the development of relationality in care and leadership. This evidence suggests that a `student voice? approach to supporting young people is fundamental to the development of an inclusive learning environment for the benefit of all students.
PUBLISHED
2013-01-01T00:00:00ZAdult Recipients of Bullying Behaviour: Effects and Coping Strategieshttp://hdl.handle.net/2262/40158
Adult Recipients of Bullying Behaviour: Effects and Coping Strategies
Lynch, Jean Margaret
This study identifies the negative effects of bullying behaviour on thirty people in their place of work. Personality differences between participants in the study who claim to have been bullied and a matched control group, and the coping strategies employed in stressful periods were sought. Possible individual and organisational antecedents to bullying were identified. In addition, to using psychometric measures to obtain quantitative data the findings were enriched by including qualitative research methods.
2004-01-01T00:00:00Z